Clouded Skies: A story of a Hero
by Grassy Leaves
Summary: Cloud was a loner when she met Fallen Leaves who invited her into his tribe. When a harsh leader gets her friends drowned it's time to take matters into her own hands. Oneshot


**This is a quick oneshot that I wrote right before I got Outcast. I didn't finish before I went to the bookstore so the end was what I wrote after I finished Outcast.**

**It's barely edited, and it needs some help a lot, but it works for now. If I ever have time I'll go back and edit.**

**Enjoy!**

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"Even trainin' can't prepare a softpaw for rain!" growled a scraggly gray tom.

Fallen Leaves jerked his white muzzle towards the dark sky. "But the sky's clear."

"I smell rain on the wind, I tell you."

My heart raced. I wrapped my featherlike tail around my white paws. I sniffed the air in the moorland. I scented damp air from the dew on the grass, but… wait! Was that… rain?

"The sky's clear!" Fallen Leaves insisted. He whisked his ginger and white tail away.

"Good luck softpaw!"

"Take care," Flowing Streams whispered. Her ginger fur was fluffed a bit in saddness.

"I will see you at dawn," he promised. Their noses touched for a brief moment and Fallen Leaves was engulfed in the black darkness.

_He'll be back._ I promised myself. _He's strong enough. He'll be back._

-_Flashback-_

"Who're you? I've never seen you before." A ginger and white tom cocked his head to one side.

"I'm Cloud." I answered.

"Cloud? That's a funny name. Guess what? Betcha can't guess!"

I nodded my snowy head for him to go on.

"I'm a softpaw! Finally! I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for so long!" The tom's excitement caused him to bounce up and down on his paws, his tail lashing.

"A soft… paw?"

"Yeah! Softpaws…"

"Fallen Leaves where are you?" A black tom bounded out of the bush.

"This is Frozen Ice, my tutor."

"Thanks for the introduction, who's this?" The black tom leaned closer to me. He sniffed me and lurched back.

"No one from around here." He concluded. "I'm Frozen Ice, would you like to come back to camp?"

"Is Cloud gonna join the tribe? Is she gonna get a name? Is she? Is she? Is she?" Fallen Leaves bounced up and down like a rabbit.

"Come with me Cloud," Frozen Ice meowed with a mellow voice. His voice sounded friendly.

"Um… okay…"

"Cloud's gonna get a na-ame! She's gonna get a na-ame!"

-_End Flashback-_

Flowing Streams whimpered. "He's my last… my last to face the ordeal… my youngest… Fallen Leaves!"

"He will be safe," an older brown tom comforted.

Flowing Streams' eyes hardened, "Don't comfort me!"

She saw the sad look in the tom's eyes, then exclaimed, "You! You can smell it too! Any cat here with any scent can smell the rain on the wind!"

My fears were confirmed. Fallen Leaves had faced the ordeal on a floodday.

I closed my eyes trying to feel what he was thinking. _Darkness…_

-_Flashback-_

"Her new name will be Clouded Skies!"

I touched my nose with the leader of the tribe. He smiled and whispered that I was doing great. My first impression of the leader was that he was heartless and arrogant and didn't care about the tribe. The tribe seemed to care though.

"Too late now…" I thought.

"Great name, Cloud!" Fallen Leaves bounced up. "Er… Clouded Skies!"

The whole tribe was cheering my name. It was the best feeling I had felt since I had hunted my first rabbit.

-_End Flashback-_

The silence began. As the leader yowled the sacred words as we saw the last of Fallen Leaves' shadow in the tunnel. I sat down away from the other cats to try and keep a vigil for him. No cat talked. It was part of the ritual. No cat could talk until dawn.

Shadowed Feet came to sit next to me. He nodded his head as he saw my sadness.

-_Flashback-_

"Come back here!" I yowled.

"Not until you chase me!" Fallen Leaves called from the other side of the brook.

"Why you little…"

I stepped into the stream and slowly made my way across. Fallen Leaves waited for me to step out and shake myself so that he could move on.

He climbed up a tree. I flexed my claws ready to come get him. Clovered Field, a gray tom, joined my chase. He and I ran across the forest chasing Fallen Leaves who was jumping from tree to tree.

"You'll never catch me now! You're too slow!" Fallen Leaves taunted, though his breathing showed he was out of breath.

He balanced on a small branch for a moment, teetered for a heartbeat and fell off the twig. Clovered Field and I both twitched our whiskers in laughter.

When we got back to camp, the leader called us.

"Clovered Field! My den." Clovered Field followed him to his den in the shrubs. When Clovered Field came out, his expression was dull and serious unlike his joking expression he showed just before.

"Dawned Light has chosen me to become a sharpclaw." He stated.

Fallen Leaves and I both gasped. Clovered Field could be killed in the waters on a floodday if he wasn't lost in the caves beneath the moor.

"When…" Fallen Leaves began.

"Tomorrow."

"Our tribe is in need of more sharpclaws," Dawned Light announced to the tribe. "Clovered Field will face the ordeal tomorrow at Dawn."

Before the vigil that the tribe took when one entered the cave I remembered the sadness on Clovered Field's face. He did not want to be a chosen one.

-_End Flashback-_

The moon was high in the sky and Fallen Leaves had not come back yet. Shadowed Feet nosed me in sadness. He and I had both been close to Fallen Leaves. Shadowed Feet was Fallen Leaves' older brother.

Dawned Light had not yet raised his head declaring Fallen Leaves dead. There was still hope.

I remembered Dawned Light's raised head when Clovered Field had faced the ordeal. He had announced that Clovered Field was a disgrace to the tribe. I couldn't agree. I'd been with him for most of my life when I had joined the tribe, and now… he was gone.

Shadowed Feet sat up and curled his tail around his feet thinking. I sighed. If Fallen Leaves didn't return soon, Dawned Light would never find a successor. It pained me to think that he was gone.

Shadowed Feet's amber eyes showed empathy in them, but I didn't want his pity. I wanted Fallen Leaves back. He was my first friend.

_Plick… _

I felt a droplet of rain on my tail. I wanted to scream, "No!" but I kept my vigil. Maybe Fallen Leaves was nearly out of the cave and he would return to us before the caves flooded.

Time passed. Dawn started. Shadowed Feet's amber eyes reflected the orange in the sunrise. It was a glorious sunrise, but a sad one too.

As if in slow motion Dawned Light raised his gray head. "I say this by the Endless Hunt Tribe so that they may hear me and receive him well… Fallen Leaves is dead."

My bottled sadness burst out like water held back by ice. "No!" Flowing Stream collapsed on the ground, but Dawned Light just stalked away. I missed Freed Water, the first leader, who would have comforted the tribe instead of focusing on a successor.

I noticed that as more and more time passed, younger and younger cats began to face the ordeal. As I grew older and older, I never forgot Fallen Leaves or Clovered Field. One of our last softpaws faced the ordeal and I knew my time had come. Finally, I couldn't hold my anger in any longer and to stop this tragic turn of events I offered to go into the cave.

It was unlike any experience I had ever had before. Rock, an ancient cat met me and told me my task. I followed my instincts and entered the left tunnel. Darkness engulfed me like the one I had felt when Fallen Leaves had entered the cave.

As I saw the waters roaring up against me I saw. I saw the fate of the tribe I had joined, that they would no longer stay near the lake but join the mountains where the next leader would take them. Dawned Light had destroyed the tribe. It was better to be with Fallen Leaves and Clovered Field in The Tribe of Endless Hunting than with a hopeless tribe.

One of my own kits became the next leader, bringing much change to the tribe. I named him Snowed Grass. He renamed himself Snow Where Mountains Lay. Snow didn't face the ordeal, but lead a rebellion against Dawned Light's harsh ways.

Snow exiled Dawned Light and brought the tribe to a cave behind a waterfall many catwalks away.

I was there for him when he changed his name again to Stoneteller, Teller of Pointed Stones where his ancestors, like myself, could talk to him.

So that is the story of my tribe. I am proud of my son. He has taken our tribe to a new land where the water runs free and the skies are endless.

When I joined The Tribe of Endless Hunting I thought I would see Fallen Leaves once again. I thought I would see his white muzzle and bright, curious eyes. I do not know where he is. It is thought by cats that he stayed in the caves waiting to stop others who entered from taking the same fate as his.

Now that our tribe has progressed to a new era, a new fate, I am no longer Clouded Skies, but Cloud Where Skies Part. Fallen Leaves is a hero in my eyes, and I commanded my son to give him a new name. The name: Leaf that Fell from Trees.

He is a hero.

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**So yeah. It definitely needs some work. If you liked it, let me know in a review, if you didn't like it, let me know in a review. If you loved it, reviews are great. Fallen Leaves and Clouded Skies like reviews. :)**

**Luv,**

**Grassy**


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